Ephesians chapter 6. The title
of my message is Tychicus. It's Tychicus or Tychucus. Even the phonetic spelling and
the lexicons and stuff, that's a hard one. So just like with
Philemon, I don't think Tychicus will mind if I call him Tychicus.
They can forgive me. But the title of my message is
Tychicus, God's Preacher. Boy, there's a whole... I mean,
we could spend weeks on these two verses. That's our text.
We need to learn something. God's got to teach it to us.
Because this ain't just about, oh, that's dealing with preachers.
I don't have to listen. I'm not a preacher. That's dealing with
pastors. I'm not a pastor. That don't affect me none. Now,
like we saw this morning, we're everyone's servants. The Lord's
going to make every one of us priests and kings, isn't He? So we need to pay attention to
this. This is to us. This is how we're equipped as children
of God. This is how we're equipped and
what happens, it's uniform to His preachers. Go out and preach
the gospel and it's uniform to His pastors. I feel real awkward
standing up here telling you about how to treat your pastor
and how pastors ought to be and what their qualifications are,
but I'm just telling you what the Lord says. It ain't my opinion. I'll just tell you what he said.
But this is to every one of us. It's to every one of us. It says
in verse 21, Ephesians 6, 21. But that ye also may know my
affairs and how I do. Tachikos, a beloved brother and
a faithful minister in the Lord shall make known to you all things. whom I have sent unto you for
the same purpose that ye might know our affairs and that he
might comfort your hearts." If the Lord will enable me this
morning, if he'll be with us, I want to tell you what this
text means. What these two verses mean in
such a way that you could walk out that door and someone comes
up to you in a parking lot and says, hey, could you tell me
what them two verses mean while they're there? And you say, yeah,
I can tell you what that means. That's what I strive for. Put it in
the plainest terms possible. I hope it makes sense. I think
it'll bless us. We see our instruction in this. The Lord may raise up one day
to go out and preach, may raise up to go out and pastor. See
that instruction and then see Christ's fulfillment. Just like
we went through Timothy. All the qualifications for an
elder and a preacher. Do you fit any of those? Do you
know anybody that fits any of those? No, we don't. That's Christ
that does it. Our high priest fits them, don't
he? We'll see Him fulfilled in this too. We'll see a very short,
a very brief story throughout the Scriptures about some believers,
don't we? We just recently looked at Onesimus. He didn't mention
a whole lot. You think that's important? The
Lord recorded it for us to have 2,000 years later. There's something
there. There's a Gospel message there.
What a blessing it is to see the hand of God at work in our
brothers and sisters. both then and now. It's a blessing. Tychicus is not Eutychus in Acts
20. That's commonly misinterpreted.
He fell asleep. Paul preached until midnight,
fell over, died, and then Paul went and raised him. So pastors
ought to take it as a compliment. People sleep through the service. They trust you to raise them
up if they was to fall over and die, I suppose. But it's not
Eutychus. It's Tychicus. It says there
he was a beloved Brother. Who is a brother? Y'all hear me? Y'all listen to
me. Who's a sister? I talk about brethren every time
I send a bulletin out. Brethren, comma. Who are the brethren? This is something important.
The Lord wrote it down. It's important, isn't it? Who's
a brother or sister or brethren that we always talk about? It's
someone that the Father, God the Father put into Christ. before
the world was. He chose in Christ, in His elect.
It's someone that Christ redeemed at Calvary. He purchased. And it's someone God the Holy
Spirit has come to and abounded towards them. They tackled Him.
They got a hold of Him, put life in Him. Revealed Christ in them. Brethren are the part of the
body of Christ. They are family. This ain't somebody
that's covered with a napkin. They got the gospel and they're
off by themselves. Hiding it. Strangers. This is family. We have the same
Father. We're not strangers. We might
not know each other. We ain't never met in person.
But boy, whenever we meet and talk with them, there ain't nothing
strange coming out of them, is there? Ain't nothing strange
about them. May have never met them, but
we're a family, right off the bat. We're one. We're unified. We have unity in Christ. Turn
back to Ephesians 2, just a couple pages. Ephesians 2, verse 19.
It's who our family is, our brothers and sisters. Ephesians 2, 19,
now therefore you are no more strangers. It's not strange. And foreigners, not from another
land, but fellow citizens with the saints and the household
of God. You're the same. You have the
same citizenship. That's who my brothers are. That's
who my sisters are. That's my brethren. Fellows in the same
ship. Got the same passport. From the
same country. We're family. Look here in chapter
3, verse 14. For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Father of the Lord
Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is
named. I have brothers and sisters that
are older than me. I have brothers and sisters that
are already in glory. And I have brothers and sisters
that are younger than me, and some of them haven't been called
yet. But they have one Father. We all have the same Father,
don't we? Born of Him, we're related. Some people have different
fathers. They're not my kin. We're not
fellow citizens. We're not family. But we're made
one in Him. Look here in chapter 4, verse
4, on another page. Ephesians 4, 4. There is one
body and one spirit, even as ye are called into one hope of
your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all
and in you all. Who Christ dwells in, that's
my family. That's what he said. Who's my mother? Who's my brothers? It's these right here. That's
not a term we throw around too easy. I'll give you an illustration.
Somebody's a dear, beloved brother. That's the title that comes out.
That's the prefix. But they don't believe Christ's
death was all that was needed. They think something else was
needed. They think that that grace of His was irresistible.
I heard a man say one time, I could stick my hand in the face of
God and stop him. I said, you better not say it out loud again.
Oh, it gives me chill bumps now. And I was a small child when
I heard that. Some people think that, that
there's resistance they can have. This same person that has this
title might say that God didn't make them fully holy. You've
got to make yourself more holy. You've got to sanctify yourself
more. They just had to keep part of the law, or they'd go to hell.
Yeah, isn't that something? People want to keep the law,
they want to observe a day, or not observe a day, or not eat
something, or you have to tithe, or whatever it is. They pick
one or two things, and it's the easy ones. Read through that
Levitical law. That's hard. Oh, you've got to
keep the moral law. You've got to be sweet to me. That's who
they're worried about. You don't want no business with
that law. You don't want to meet it because you can't keep it.
But somebody says, you've got to do something. You've got to
be more moral. You've got to do something outwardly. You've got
to pray more. You've got to read your Bible more. You've got to
do something a certain way. And those people that don't need
the love of believers, they don't need to be around the body of
Christ, they can take it or leave it. I don't have to sit underneath
the gospel and be fed today. There's no need in them. Take
it or leave it. take their brethren of one body,
of one father, born of the same country, a heavenly kingdom. Man, if my brother or my sister
flew into that airport down there, I ain't seen them in six months,
and they didn't come by and say hi to me, or they didn't tell
me it's coming, you think I'd be mad? Of course I would. Ain't we brothers and sisters?
People hide off with a napkin up in a hill somewhere thinking
they're holding God. Now, to you who believe, a person
that meets all those things, thinks those things, you've got
to do something else. I don't need the Lord, I don't need His
people. Would you call them, brother, a dear, beloved brother
that Christ bled for? I hope not. We need, me too. I've got a bad habit from the
military, called everybody, what's up brother? And I ought not do
that. even in a carnal mind or out
in this world. But we need to be careful about
throwing around the word brethren, brother, and sister. This is
a precious prefix. It's a precious title that Christ's
blood paid for. We ought to be careful. We don't
throw around the title doctor, do we? Some people get a PhD
in Ants or bugs or something. They say, I'm a doctor. And then
somebody starts having a heart attack. We need a doctor. You're a doctor.
Oh, no, I ain't that kind of doctor. Might be somebody you need. Somebody
here, you call somebody brother or sister, they may have a need
one day. Need to lean on them. Y'all be careful. These children
of God are more than just siblings in this flesh and blood. They
are beloved of God. We are united in Him, in Christ. That's an uncommon title. That
is precious. That's what the Lord calls peculiar. There are peculiar people. Alright,
I'm back in our text, Ephesians 6, verse 21. But that you may know my affairs
and how I do. Tachikos, a beloved brother. This brother, he was beloved. Tachikos loved the Lord. Why? Why did Tychicus love the Lord?
Same as you who believe in this day do. He first loved us. The
Lord loved Tychicus. That's how he loved the Father.
He loved the brethren and was loved by the brethren. He loved
them. Paul loved him. Paul loved Tychicus. They traveled a whole bunch.
They went all through Asia together. As a bunch of them at first and
then as they started falling away, Tychicus was left. That's
good. Let's go to rescue this July.
Let's travel. There's two brethren right now
traveling from one state to another so one can go preach and he took
one of them with him. The Lord uses that. You get to stay in
motels and eat in places you don't want to eat and get a bad
meal and you get to see people and how they are. And the Lord's
preachers and pastors will see something in somebody. See the
fruit to the spirit in somebody and say, I think the Lord's going
to use that person. Why don't you go with me again? Why don't
you start reading Scripture? Can you bring 15 minutes? That's
how the Lord grows His pastors and preachers. They don't just
come to you one day and say, would you go to school? Spend some
time with them. That's good. That's what reading
Acts 20. Ty Chikus was with a whole mess of them that was traveling
with Paul. He's the one that was left. He endured, didn't
he? Paul loved him. Paul loved him.
Tachikos was Paul's scribe. You know, he penned this letter
to Ephesus, Ephesians. Paul spoke it. Paul told Tachikos
and he's the one that wrote it out. Paul loved those in Ephesus too,
didn't he? Those brethren. He loved those
brethren in Ephesus so much he was going to sacrifice himself
for those brethren in Ephesus. How's he going to do that? Tachikos
is sitting there in prison with him. This trusted friend. Boy, we've been through a lot
of cold nights, haven't we? Oh, we've spent a lot of time
together. You helped me write this. I can't see nothing. You write it, Tychicus.
That was a help, wasn't it? Boy, what a help. And Paul said,
you know what? I love you. Instead of me keeping
him, I'm going to send him to you. Some of them writers, he
went to go be the pastor at Ephesus. That's Paul loving the brethren,
isn't it? He loved them brethren the same as Tychicus loved them.
How does someone become so loving and so lovable? Brethren are lovable. Do you
know that? There might be days you might not like me, but I
hope you love me. I might burn some meals sometimes
up here. I may burn some toast, but still
be lovable, ain't we? How do we do that? Paul wrote
to Titus and said, For we ourselves are sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving different lusts and pleasures, living in malice. That's not loving, is it? Living
in envy, to envy, to want something somebody else has got, or a position,
or a thing, or anything. That's not lovable. That's not
loving, is it? We were hateful, hating one another.
Despising, despising God and despising His people. That's
where we all started out at. That's where we were born of
Adam in this world. In our flesh, until the love of God was shed
abroad in our hearts, wasn't it? Something had to happen.
Till God the Holy Spirit come to us through the preaching of
the Gospel. He sent a Tychicus to you. And He said, this is
God's Word. Here's what it means. And I said,
boy, that's right. This is Christ right here. I see now. The light's
been turned on. The Lord said, let there be light.
And there was light in my heart. Look at that. That's how it happens. That's what changes. That's how
we become lovable and loving. Turn over to James 3. Just after
Hebrews. James 3. Let's see what this son of thunder
has to say about his beloved brethren. James 3 verse 13. James 3 verse 13. Who is a wise
man and endured with knowledge among you? You got any wisdom? You want to share with everybody
else? You want to come here and talk instead of listen? who's
wise among you. Let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and
strife in your hearts, glory not. If you're all fired up to
fight the good fight that ain't, don't glory. And lie not against
the truth. Don't let it be in your flesh.
This wisdom, somebody getting all fired up on their knowledge,
on their wisdom, I'm going to share it with everybody, it descendeth
not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where
envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."
Those brethren in Ephesus needed Tachikos. They needed him. Paul come, preached
the gospel, and they were self-governed ever since. They was making their
own decisions. And you know what that turns
into? Well, I'm wise. I know how to do this. Well, you're
wise. You know how to do that. Let me teach this one. You teach
that one. And they'll find teachers of themselves. Scriptures tell
us. Isn't that right? They know the gospel. They're
the Lord's people. But boy, they got an old nature. Bites and
devours. Tears them up. There's envying
and strife. And you know what that happens?
Confusion. You can put a whole lot of people in a wagon. Only
one man can hold the reins. If everybody in that wagon is
reaching up, well, I think this. Well, I think that. There's confusion. There's confusion and delay.
That's what it calls them, buddy. Ain't going to do them no good.
What's going to have to happen? Verse 17, James 3, 17. But the
wisdom, that's in ourselves. That's not just in the local,
but it's in us, it's in our homes, it's in the church, and it's
in the body of Christ throughout. It's systemic. It's the same throughout.
What happens in a person? We're that way. I'm going to
tell you what I know, even though I've got one mouth and two ears.
We're everyone that way. Something's got to change. Something's
got to make us lovable and loving. Look here in verse 17, but the
wisdom of God that is from above is first pure. When Christ is
revealed in a person, when we are born again, they hear for
the first time the Lord's voice that says, that is from above
is first pure, then, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated. Boy, that's something. Lord has to give that. There's
some people in this world I don't want to talk to. Get my head
chopped off. Hard, stern, they're not easily
entreated. God's got to come into their
heart. God's got to come to them. That pure thing from above's
got to be revealed in them. Then they'll be peaceful. Then
they'll be easily entreated. Full of mercy and good fruits, without
partiality. They don't prefer one over the
other. Our nature does that, don't it? I like this one. I
prefer Paul over Apollos. Oh, Cephas, what a speaker. Man,
that guy was good, wasn't he? Just a clay pot with water in
it. Clay pot with water in it. Without hypocrisy. Verse 18,
and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that
make peace. This is an honorable, precious
title. given to someone, a beloved brother. God's worked in them. You can
tell it spills out. Their cup overfloweth. That cup
inside of them, that new man's full, plumb full, and it's coming
out. What's coming out of them? The
water of life that went in them. Christ comes out of them. Meekness.
Easily approachable. Christ told us in John 13, By
this shall all men know that you're my disciples. You see,
if you quote a lot of Scripture, there's people that love the
Scripture and ain't got a clue who Christ is. No, that's not what he said.
If you change how you talk in front of people, you just sound
real sweet. You put on your church voice, what we call that in the
South. Well, hello. Everything's a little higher
and all the vowels kind of smooth together. You got to sound a
little different. Oh. Answer the phone different. No, that's not what he said.
How's everybody going to know that you're my disciples? If you live a clean,
virtuous life. Oh, you got to have some holy
living. Quit drinking, smoking. Don't do those things. Better quit cussing. Better dress
right. Better comb your hair good. Somebody got on me one
time. I got a beard. My Lord has a beard. He plucked
it out, didn't he? He said, By this shall you know,
shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have loved
one for another. That's the only thing you can't
fake. Unfeigned. You can do it for a little while. But if you ain't got it, you
ain't got it. It ain't gonna come out of you. It says there,
back in our text, that Tachikos, a beloved brother, says in verse
21, Tachikos, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the
Lord. It means he was faithful in the
work and service of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was faithful. This man beloved. Made a brother
was faithful. Paul told us, moreover, it was
required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Stewards. Those that tend to. Those that take a pound and gotta
keep it. You gotta be faithful. You gotta
abide in it. You gotta live there. Make a
whole life in it. Turn yourself over completely
to it. Be faithful. Where did the love come from
that made Tachikos a brother? Where did that come from? The
Lord. It came from the Lord, didn't it? That's where His first
love that made Him beloved. He made Him family. Where does
His faithfulness come from? Well, now we've got to change
it. Nope, that's not the case, is it? Where does faithfulness
come from? The Lord's got to make you faithful.
We don't produce it. It's a gift of God. A gift of
the God that is faithful. of our Redeemer who is faithful.
Turn back just a little bit to Ephesians 2 again. Ephesians
2 verse 8. Ephesians 2 verse 8. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship. Did
you see what my faith produced? You didn't produce nothing. The
Lord produced it. It's His workmanship. It's His faith. He gave it to
you. Created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in. Almighty God ordained
His children to be faithful. Those He loved first in Christ.
Those He gave the gift of faith of Christ. It's His faith. He
begins it. He works it. And He ends it.
He's the author and finisher of it. And He's ordained that
it will happen. Will He let one perish? He said
He wouldn't, would He? He ordained it. He'll make it
happen. He'll make them faithful. All the works of men and women
that they think are good works are not what God says are good
works. Did you know that? Just think about that. You doing
good works? The fruits of the Spirit. Being
joyous is a good work. Being meek is a good work. Having temperance is good. Keeping
your mouth shut is a good work. Hush and being shut up to your
sin. Boy, does that produce some good
things? You've got to look to Christ if He shuts you up to
sin. Being gentle to a brother or sister that's fallen. Being
tender to them. That's a good work. All these
fruits are the workmanship of God in you. Paul wrote in Galatians
5 that the fruit of the Spirit is love. That's the first thing
isn't it? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, and faith. That beloved is going to be faithful
because it's from the same Spirit, same fruit. Christ dwelling in
you, abiding in you. If you love, the Spirit produced
that in you. If you have faith, the Spirit,
capital S, produced that in you. Those born of God are faithful.
That's why Paul is addressing his letters to believers. The
saints, those beloved of God, he said, to the faithful in Christ
Jesus. Over in Colossians, he begins
with, "...to the faithful brethren in Christ." Faithful ones. Now also, Tachikos was faithful
because Christ qualified him. He appointed him. He sent him.
The same as he sent Paul. He got turned there, but in 1
Timothy it says, Paul writes, "...and I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord who enabled me, for that he counted me faithful."
He made me faithful too, didn't he? putting me into the ministry
who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but
I obtained mercy." God had to save him first because I did
it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceedingly abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
How does the Lord equip his children in faith and love that he gives?
How does he equip his preachers and pastors with faith and love
that he gives? How is our high priest equipped?
With his faith and his love towards us. And that while we were yet
sinners, before sending his ministers
out, Christ works in them so that they will prove their faithfulness
to their brethren. There's a dear brother of mine
that's a pastor for a long time, sold his bass boat. You know
what his brethren back there said? Well, he's serious now.
I know a couple of brethren who had some very successful businesses.
Business was a booming. And they sold their business.
Moved to the other side of the state. They're serious now, ain't
they? They proved it. The Lord enabled
them to prove that. They spent a lot of time together,
Tachikos and Paul. Paul found him to be of one mind. There's Christ dwelling in that.
One mind and the gospel. And he remained faithful to Paul
even when all them other ones deserted him. He was proven faithful
to Paul and Paul sent him to a bunch of churches to go preaching
for him. Go preach Christ. What does it mean to be a faithful
minister in Christ? First, he's faithful to the Lord,
our master, our God. He knows himself to be a sinner.
When I was talking to a brother that's preaching this morning,
we started up late last night talking. I said, when I tell
you all, if you could see inside of my head, you wouldn't eat
lunch with me. I'm being serious. I know what I am. The Lord has
revealed it to me. All my hope is in Christ alone.
And our desire is for Christ to have all the glory in this
life, in the gospel we preach, in His house, in my own house,
everywhere. That's our priority, isn't it? Isn't that the same in your house?
For everyone you believe, in your heart, God gave you love,
gave you faith, made you believers. You seek Christ's glory in all
things. You ain't got to stay up here and preach to do that,
do you? Alright, I'll skip on down to
the last thing, try not to keep you long. Communication. Back
in our text. The Lord equipped this brother
with love, making him a beloved brother. He equipped him with
faithfulness and he equipped him with the ability to communicate.
We see the importance of communication between brethren here. It says
there, "...but that ye also may know my affairs, how I do, he
shall make known to you, Tachikos shall make known to you all things,
whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose that ye might
know our affairs." Paul just told him how he was a captive
in Rome. He was a prisoner. Could you imagine if Somebody
got word, like, Brother Clay Curtis is in prison up in New
Jersey. Been locked up for a year. Well,
how is he? You think brethren in Ephesus
wanted to know how he's doing? Are they feeding him? He said
he's been preaching. How is that possible? Well, he's
got a hired house. Well, how are they letting him
do this? What is he doing? Is it benefiting the Lord's work? Getting done there? They wanted
to know about him, didn't they? And I thought about this. doing
all this COVID stuff, and the Lord used that to send somebody
in His providence. Like, well, I ain't got nothing
else to do. Mom's working extra because of COVID. I'm going to
go listen to this guy preach with my family members, my cousins. And the Lord saved that person.
I told you that. Does that make you happy? It's
good. I want to know. I want to know the Lord's working. Where is He at? What is He doing
in my brothers and sisters, in my body? I'm going to have a
liver over there. I'm going to have a lung over
there. I want to know about it. He's going to send them. We've
got to communicate those things. And knowing where to rejoice with
their brethren and knowing where to pray with them and to suffer
with them, to weep with them. If somebody don't tell me they're
hurting, I don't know to pray for them. If I don't know, they're struggling.
And it don't matter what it is. We saw Paul talking to Philemon
and Onesimus, whether they wronged him. I don't need to know the
sin. Keep that to yourself, but you say, I'm suffering over my
sin. I know exactly what you're talking about. I know the cure
too. Look to the one that took that
sin away. I need reminded of that and we do too and our brethren
in other places. That needs reminded of that.
This is important that Paul's also communicating to the church
of Ephesus by giving them Tachikos. He communicated his word. Hey,
you tell them what was going on with me. But He also communicated,
He gave this one that served Him, ministered to Him, to them
to serve them, to minister and labor for them. He gave them
Tychicus. With His Word, this man that
preaches the Gospel. Boy, isn't that a good gift?
To communicate. That's God's ascension gift.
He said, I'll give you pastors and preachers up to my own heart.
I'll send them to you. Paul gave Tachikos here, just
as God the Father gave us Christ, communicating what God the Father
did for His people. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. And this was manifested,
the love of God towards us, because that God sent His only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through Him. Tachikos is going to bear some
children in Ephesus. Some spiritual children. He's
going to go out there and preach and somebody's going to hear. They're going
to receive life through the Lord in there. Communicating is what
Christ did for us. John told us, said, Hereby perceive
we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Why was Tachikos
so willing? He made pretty good in the big
city of Rome. Probably had a side job. Everybody fed? Why would he give all that up
to go to Ephesus and go be a servant? Don't make sense to the natural
man. Don't make no sense. Why would
he do that? Christ laid down his life for him. He was beloved.
He was made faithful to Christ. And he said, well, Christ laid
down his life. I'll give up everything in this earth. Sell it all. I
don't care. I'm going to go down there to
him. You'll be up late at night, Tychicus. That's all right. You
ain't going to sleep. You start waking up at four o'clock
every morning worrying and praying. Wolves are going to come at you.
And sometimes they have a unified attack around this nation at
the same time around this world. Wolves are coming. They're going
to try to kick you out of there. They're going to chide your ears
and whoop you and wrassle you and grapple you. And Tachika
said, that's all right. The servant ain't above his master,
is he? made Him willing. And that communication
of faith and love is what Tachikos took to Him. And Paul sent it
through Him. Alright, what's that going to happen? If He sacrifices
all these things to communicate to Him, it's going to comfort
and bless those people. Here in verse 22, lastly we see
this charge Christ gives His servants. It says that He, Tachikos,
might comfort your hearts. That's what Isaiah told us. Nothing's
changed, has it? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, that she hath received of the Lord's hand double, double
for all her sins. Well, what's that mean? Well,
Tachikos is there to explain to you. I'm going to tell you
exactly what that double means. That's comfort. He sent him to
comfort. Paul sent him. And he's going
there on the word of Paul. But did Paul say, I'm going to
send him, but I'm still going to comfort you through Tachikos? No, he said Tachikos is going
to comfort you. That's a coffee cup you were given. And you need
the coffee, you don't need the cup. Listen to the one that sent
you. That's Paul's, he couldn't go
with him, but at ordinations you go, and that's a brother
giving a good profession of another brother. giving a good report.
This man's faithful. He loves the Lord. The Lord loves
him. Ain't no laying on of hands. As Spurgeon said, putting your
empty hands on my empty head ain't gonna help nobody. Man,
don't do it. God does it. And everybody says,
well, that's something I've done. Aspiring office of a bishop's
a good thing until you get to know what it costs. Don't count the
cost. The Lord has to do it. God has
to do it. He has to make a favor. How was
you saved? How did you come to know Christ?
God had to do it. You didn't do it yourself and some other
man didn't do it for you. God had to save His people. He
comforts and He blesses. Tychicus could comfort all these
brethren concerning the Lord about why the Lord gave Paul
these afflictions and why the Lord gave him these afflictions
and why the Lord gave him this duty. He can go tell them. Go tell them about why. Why these things happen. Who
it happened for. Who's glory it happened for. Turn over Philippians
1. I'll let you go. Philippians
1. I went to turn. Look down at
Philippians 1. I got to stop writing turn in
my notes. Kierma takes all those out for you all. I said the notes
out. She makes it make sense. Philippians 1.12. But I would
ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happen
to me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.
Paul's in prison. Ain't nothing good come out of
that. Our pastor, the man that preached the gospel to me, oh,
he's in dire straits. He's a prisoner of Christ. It
happened just on purpose for the furtherance of the gospel.
People say, well, I don't know about that. Are you reading Paul's
letter right now? God furthered it for 2,000 years down the road.
All that was for the furtherance of the gospel, that trial the
Lord sent him. Verse 20, according to my earnest expectation and
my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all
boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in
my body, whether it be by life or by death. Whether He kills
me in this body, the trials He sends me. If the Lord takes my
eyesight and I can't see no more. Boy, that's right. What the Lord
did was right. If He keeps me faithful to the
end, what He did was right. If He lets me love my brethren to
the end, what He did was right. Good, bad, or ugly, any trial
He sends, it's for His glory. Now both Paul and Tachikos were
beloved brothers, faithful ministers in Christ. They communicated,
they gave themselves to their brethren. They comforted their
brethren. And the memories of both of them
are preserved for us still. Isn't that something? Right here
in the Lord's Word. This is a picture of us, what
our Lord did for us. He sends preachers and pastors,
teachers in the gospel, and He saves His people from the bottom
to the top, from a toe to the head. It's uniform, isn't it? Tachikos mentioned here, it's
short, but boy, there's so much instruction out of that for the
servants of Christ in our homes, in our preaching, and throughout
this world. But wouldn't you be happy? Wouldn't it be good if you were
remembered, if you were remembered, as a beloved faithful servant. Wouldn't that be something? If
he's made you that way, he's wrote it in a book. He's wrote
it in a book. It will be remembered forever.